hapter Twenty Two

It was still daylight when we made it back to camp, but it was fading fast. Jeri and Hunter were sitting in front of the fire talking when we came up and Hunter was the first to react.

“Dude, what happened to your leg?”

“I’m pretty sure I twisted my ankle.”

“Jack, your leg is fucking gone, man.”

“It twisted really far.” I flopped down into a comfortable position by the fire, resolved not to move until I crawled off to bed. The crutch had taken it out of me. Debbie started telling everyone what really happened and Jeri came over to me.

“Pull up your pant leg, let me see it.”

“You into that kind of stuff? Seems kind of weird to do it right here in front of Hunter.”

“Not funny, Jack. I know you heal fast, but what if the stump gets infected? I’m not a doctor but I’ve got basic first aid stuff in my backpack. Let me check it for you.”

It seemed pointless, but I didn’t really have a reason to refuse so I pulled up the remnants of my pant leg to show off the stump. Debbie broke off in mid-sentence to redirect a question at me, “Is the stub longer than it used to be?” Before I could answer Jeri shuddered and pulled back from me a little. “Are those toenails?”

I stared at the end of my leg fascinated by what I saw there. Rather than the ragged scab or even scar tissue I expected, there was nothing but smooth skin. Five tiny flesh protuberances on the end had slivers of nail and as I focused and tried to wiggle my toes the big one twitched. The dull ache still throbbed in the nub and I wondered if it was growing pains. I couldn’t help but grin at the others.

“My leg is growing back.”

“Dude, that is so cool. I’ve got to put some of my points into health regen.”

Debbie’s response was a little more clinical. “I think its grown 2 or 3 inches since the attack. Does that sound right?” When I shrugged in response she went on, halfway talking to herself. “If it stays at that rate it ought to be full size by the time we head back to the village. I wonder if a smaller limb would grow back faster?”

“If you’re thinking about lopping stuff off to try and get a baseline you can think again. That ain’t happening.”

Jeri swatted my shoulder. “Obviously not, ass. She was just trying to decide if you were going to be any use tomorrow.”

“Definitely not.” I said, and grabbed my crutch. I levered myself upright, and hobbled towards the keep. “I’m racking out, ya’ll let me sleep in in the morning if you don’t mind.”

* * *

I hadn’t really expected them to, but they really did let me sleep through to the morning. Not only did they not wake me for a shift on watch, my body slept past the point when nature’s call usually woke me at dawn. It was probably closer to noon when I woke up, and the first thing I did was toss my blanket to the side and check on my stump.

Except it wasn’t really a stump anymore. It wasn’t exactly my old leg back either. When I stretched out to compare it to my left leg it seemed like it might be an inch or so shorter, and I was betting I’d lost at least 3 shoe sizes. I could wiggle my toes now, and when I leaned over and pinched the bridge of my foot it hurt. That seemed like a good sign, so I got up without the crutch, anxious to see if it would support my weight. It did. The sole of my foot was tender, and after a few steps I realized I was going to have a significant limp, but it was a hell of a lot better off than I thought I would be yesterday. I sat back down and slid an extra pair of socks into the toe of my right boot so it wouldn’t slide around on the smaller foot too much before getting dressed and heading outside. Steve was there tending a fire, but I ignored him when he called out.

I was overdue to take a piss and the feeling of relief I had when I made it to the treeline was hard to describe. Sometimes in life the simple things are the most important. I walked back towards camp and nodded an apology at Steve.

“Sorry, man. When you gotta go, you gotta go.”

“You slept for close to fourteen hours. I’m sure the need to relieve yourself was extremely dire. The others asked me to stay behind and monitor the last firing of pottery and relay some information to you when you woke.”

I dug some jerky out of my bag and flopped down to a seated position while he spoke to take the weight off my gimp leg. I nodded at him to go on and he gestured back towards the water.

“We’re leaving tomorrow at daybreak, so make sure all your stuff is packed before sundown. Any skins that aren’t cured or unfinished products will be locked up in the keep when we go. John, Allison, and Debbie are planting the seeds you brought so they will have a chance to germinate while we are gone. Hunter and Jeri have gone to disable the trap line. In light of your injury we decided that you have the day off.”

“Tis but a flesh wound, but I’m not gonna bitch about the day off. I’ll leave you to do your thing, I’m gonna go test drive the new leg.”

It would probably be smarter to just hang out around the fire, maybe skin out the t-rex bodies I’d brought back. It didn’t seem like things really rotted inside the messenger bag though. Some of the crabadillo jerky I’d dropped in on the first day was still pretty much identical to the way it went in so I decided it could wait until I had down time later. Instead I limped out to the place I’d been building on the hillside. It seemed a lot further now than it had before and I attributed that to the pain I felt with each step.

By the time I made it to the building site, I sat down to recover for a bit. My boot seemed a little snug now and I opened it up fearing the walk had made it swell. I couldn’t tell for sure but I think it might have grown rather than swolen. Watching it, trying to see if I could spot a visible change was weirding me out, and I shoved my foot back into the boot. I threw myself into my work to keep from thinking about it. I already had logs cut and hoisted up top, but I climbed into the loft and started assembling them. Squaring off the ends let me stack them fairly easily, and with the criss cross pattern in the corners, their own weight should have been enough to hold them in place. I’d always been a belt and suspenders kind of guy when it came to building, so I took an extra step. I used a chisel to put a hole into every third log near the corner, and fit a 4 inch peg in each. I lined up the pegs with holes in an upright log and forced it into the corner locking everything into place.

I set up a block and tackle then ran lines down to a timber hitch to haul my main roof beam into place. Even with the mechanical advantage I didn’t have the muscle to get the beam up. I gave up after a moment and found a comfortable seat to rethink my options. I heard movement in the brush and pulled the antler sword from my messenger bag and moved to put my back to the wall. I had been an idiot to come out by myself while I still wasn’t a hundred percent. Before I had a chance to get too worked up about it, I heard Hunter’s voice.

“See I told you he had gone over this way. You can see the stumps where somebody took down a butt load of trees.”

“I’m over here guys.” When I hollered out to them, the voice cut off abruptly, but soon enough Debbie called back and I guided them in with my voice. Hunter, Jeri , and Debbie had finished dismantling the trap line and had come out to check on the gimp apparently. I couldn’t help but grin at them.

“Damn, glad to see you guys over here.”

“Can’t wait to show off your new digs? It is pretty impressive, Jack.”

I grinned at Debbie. I couldn’t help but be proud of all the work I’d done.

“Nope, can’t wait to get help lifting the ridge beam. I used a come along to drag it over here but I’m having a hell of a time getting it that far off the ground. Three strong backs out to do it though, well two and Hunter’s close enough I reckon.”

Hunter flipped me the bird but the other two were quick to volunteer their help. It still took a little more cussing than would have been required with heavy equipment, but we got the ridge beam into place. I notched the top of each wall and let it roll into place, then tossed down the line.

“Ya’ll wanna tie off some of that little stuff? I’m just gonna lay it in place and lash it all together for now to keep out the weather. I’ll make clay shingles and put in a real chimney when we get back.”

They took turns doing that while they wandered around checking out the place. It was a little awkward with me up top and the rest at ground level, but we were able to carry on a conversation while we worked.

“I can’t get over how sturdy this thing is, Jack. Those walls put my tree house to shame.”

“Yeah, but I’m not up at giraffe height, Hunter. Mine’s got to stand up to one of those boogers knocking on my door, you don’t exactly have the same worries I do.”

Jeri broke in then, “You’re a pretty good primitive carpenter, Jack. We tried a spiral staircase instead of just a rope ladder but didn’t have much luck.”

“That wasn’t my fault, babe.”

“Shhhh. What I was getting at was to ask if you’d give us a hand putting in our staircase when we get back.”

“Ya’ll were quick enough to pitch in on mine. I’ll kick in a day’s worth of labor.”

“Wait, so you’re paying them back for their labor? What about me, Jack? What do I get?”

“What do you want, Debbie?”

“I’ll think about it and let you know.” She winked at me as she said it and my brain locked up. Was the hot boss lady actually flirting with me? I couldn’t decide how to respond until the silence had dragged out long enough to be a tad uncomfortable and Hunter faked a cough. Jeri made some noises about needing to get back and pack up because it was a big day tomorrow and we all headed back to camp.